Week Nineteen: Summary of Series

Sass fall despite stunning rally
Slumps in hitting keep the win out of reach
By Beth Sass / hereforthesass.blogspot.com

Heading into their games Sunday, the Sass were behind the Waukesha Nosaurs 2-9. Thanks to some lovely rallying by their pitchers, or more accurately some great sucking by the Waukesha Nosaurs’ pitching staff, the Sass managed to pick up enough points to end the week with a 5-7 score.

“Our pitching sucked this week. On Friday, I gave it up for a lost cause. Our hitting was keeping things close...in fact, they kept a couple of them pretty close, but they couldn’t quite pull it out. I hope E [official Sass heckler] still speaks to us for coming this close,” Beth said.

The final results were as follows: runs (25-31), home runs (7-12), RBIs (27-28), stolen bases (4-9), walks (15-19), batting average (.256-.306), wins (2-1), saves (2-3), strike-outs (31-27), holds (6-0), ERA (5.06-6.60), and WHIP (1.47-1.77).

“We won in strike-outs? What the [censored]?” questioned catcher A.J. Pierzynski. “Were we facing Corky “Corky” Miller this week? There is no way we can win in strike-outs. Most of our staff gets out of innings by putting the ball in play!”

The individual pitching leaders among the starters were: wins, Jeremy Sowers and Aaron Cook (1); strike-outs, Aaron Harang (7); ERA, Jeremy (2.08); and WHIP, Jeremy (1.15). Aaron C’s 2.25 ERA and 1.38 WHIP were worth noting. The worst ERA was recorded by Tomo Ohka with a 9.00, with Aaron H.’s 7.50 nothing to write home about.

Among the leaders in the relievers, we find: saves, Ambiorix Burgos (2); strike-outs, Jon Rauch and Justin Duchschererererer (3); holds, Jon and Justin (2); ERA, Justin, Matt Guerrier, and Darren Oliver (0.00), and WHIP, Justin and Darren (0.00). Brad Halsey managed to have the worst outing of all the Sass with his 33.75 ERA and 4.50 WHIP.

“Wow. Brad made me look good,” Ambiorix celebrated, knowing without Brad, his 8.10 ERA with 2.10 WHIP would’ve easily won the worst award. The Sass management have sent Brad to the Vancouver Saracastics to get some work in, as they will attempt again to get him back to being a starter.

The hitting did not do quite so well, obviously. The individual leaders were: runs, Jermaine Dye (5); home runs, Adam Dunn (2); RBIs, Adam (6); stolen bases, Little Nicky Punto (2), walks, Carlos Guillen and Michael Cuddyer (4); and batting average, Jermaine (.444). From the bench, Edwin Encarnacion contributed a .500 batting average, a home run and 2 runs, while Mark Grudzielanek added 2 RBIs and a run. However, the Sass had 3 players below the Mendoza line in hitting, and 1 player sitting on the line. Michael led the way with his paltry .130 batting average, while A.J.’s .150 and Juan Encarnacion’s .160 weren’t much better. Adam only managed a .200 for the week.

“We might’ve been able to do a little better, but we really hate tying,” said outfielder Rocco Baldelli, “If that’s what’s put us in 14th place in the BFL, so be it. We have more wins than the 13th place team, but our extra losses keep us down. We’ll take it if we don’t end games in ties.”

Beth glared at Rocco and threatened to send him to Nice to have a chat with Dawn.

This week sees Beth again alone with the team, although Dawn will likely be available by phone from Nice. It is hoped next Monday will find Dawn back from Nice. As only Doug Mientkiewicz is left on the DL, and hoping to come back soon, there’s less incentive to stay there, although Little Nicky Punto was given today off of work to visit Dawn.

The Here for the Sass team will be facing SBGF’s Assassins this week.

“There’s nothing more deflating than facing a team who’s anti-fun, complete with the anti-fun manager. It kinda sucks the life out of the field,” Justin said. “We’re hoping to go out there and show them what we have. Last time we faced them, we didn’t have a whole lot--most of us struggled coming out of Spring Training, and we still had that crabby old man that kinda sucked the life out of our team, too.”

Sass fans are reminded that the Sass will be home all this week, so ask that all come out to the park to support their team. Extra standing room will be available.